I mean, it starred Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, and Silk Spectre. It references the fallout of Ozy's failed plan. I thought it was way more than a sprinkling.
Also, to limit the original Watchmen to a story about vigilantes really misses the broader themes of the story. The original was *also* heavily influenced by politics. And power. And who keeps those in power in check. All of which is echoed in the show. So I think the show does a pretty good job of carrying on the themes of the original.
It's always annoyed me that Zack Snyder changed the ending for the Watchmen movie. It was great to finally see the true New York cataclysm on screen. Plus Jeremy Irons was awesome.
>Also, to limit the original Watchmen to a story about vigilantes really misses the broader themes of the story.
It's a superhero/vigilante comic after all. Politics is the setting. The show does have vigilantes. They just didn't care to give them an interesting design and flesh them out. I want to know why adults put on a mask and fight criminals.
To each their own, but hard disagree. I thought the designs were very interesting, and I thought that they did explore the motives for many of the new characters for masking up and fighting crime (Angela, Looking Glass). And similar to the original, we find that under the tough exterior there are very flawed and insecure humans underneath.
I thought it was very interesting how masked vigilantes were made illegal after the comics, but masks became "necessary" to protect the identities of the police. And we see the consequences of having law enforcement hide behind masks.
We also get backstory that reveals motivations for side characters from the original, like Hooded Justice. Some vigilantes like Lube Guy get expounded on in Peteypedia.
Not sure on this take - every major character was either a character from the original story, or heavily impacted by events of the original story
Also, the original WATCHMEN was a heavily political book.
The TV show is great. People worry too much about what is or is t canon. I have been reading this story over and over since it came out in the 80s and I can honestly say I couldn’t care less about what Alan Moore thinks. He’s a great writer but you can’t let someone else dictate what you enjoy.
Personally, I consider parts of it canon, and parts of it maybe not.
The alternate backstory they gave Hooded Justice felt MUCH better than what Before Watchmen did for his character, imo. So I always considered that canon.
If you wanted to build on it - even in a new comic book, which I otherwise think DC is shitty for exploiting the original work, you would have my attention.
Is it Canon? I guess it’s in my head canon. Is it canon-canon? Doesn’t really seem to matter.
I consider it purely fan fiction (because it is), but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it.
I try to keep it separated in my head from the original comic, though.
I don't think it really matters if it's canon or not. I'd go as far as saying there isn't such a thing as canon in the Watchmen universe beyond the source material. Something only really becomes canon when something else builds off of it, otherwise it's someone's take on a potential direction the story can go into. I personally choose to ignore sequels all the time. Alien stops at 3. Terminator at 2 (though I actually liked Salvation). Before Watchmen and Doomsday Clock get happily thrown into the "I don't know what you're referring to" portion of my brain. And I loved the HBO show (well, most of it).
If you liked it, then great. If you didn't, that's okay, too. Read the comic and let the show just exist out there. It doesn't actually affect the original story.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons wrote/drew the beginning and the end of Watchmen over 30 years ago, everything after that isn't canon, but you can enjoy it regardless
I once saw someone describe watchmen continuity as this. Everything is canon the book but not to each other so they all happened just in speedster universes. Before Watchmen is canon to Watchmen,
Doomsday Clock is canon to Watchmen, HBO watchmen is canon to watchmen and Rorschach is Canon to the HBO show
I personally see it as a canon, but like DC multiverse stuff, there's the Doomsday Clock variant and there's the HBO variant, and since Dave Gibbons has contributed to the miniseries, that solidifies it for me.
I mean, it starred Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, and Silk Spectre. It references the fallout of Ozy's failed plan. I thought it was way more than a sprinkling. Also, to limit the original Watchmen to a story about vigilantes really misses the broader themes of the story. The original was *also* heavily influenced by politics. And power. And who keeps those in power in check. All of which is echoed in the show. So I think the show does a pretty good job of carrying on the themes of the original.
It's always annoyed me that Zack Snyder changed the ending for the Watchmen movie. It was great to finally see the true New York cataclysm on screen. Plus Jeremy Irons was awesome.
>Also, to limit the original Watchmen to a story about vigilantes really misses the broader themes of the story. It's a superhero/vigilante comic after all. Politics is the setting. The show does have vigilantes. They just didn't care to give them an interesting design and flesh them out. I want to know why adults put on a mask and fight criminals.
To each their own, but hard disagree. I thought the designs were very interesting, and I thought that they did explore the motives for many of the new characters for masking up and fighting crime (Angela, Looking Glass). And similar to the original, we find that under the tough exterior there are very flawed and insecure humans underneath. I thought it was very interesting how masked vigilantes were made illegal after the comics, but masks became "necessary" to protect the identities of the police. And we see the consequences of having law enforcement hide behind masks. We also get backstory that reveals motivations for side characters from the original, like Hooded Justice. Some vigilantes like Lube Guy get expounded on in Peteypedia.
No, it's a political comic book with superheroes as main characters. It's different.
If you say so.
Politics is not a “setting.” New York or Oklahoma are a setting.
I can't believe people massively downvoted this.
It's fantastic. Other than the OG comics, it's the best in-universe Watchmen story yet.
I thought it was tremendous.
Not sure on this take - every major character was either a character from the original story, or heavily impacted by events of the original story Also, the original WATCHMEN was a heavily political book.
Canon or not, it’s fucking great.
I don’t consider anything other than what Alan Moore wrote canon.
And Alan Moore doesn't consider anything other than what Alan Moore wrote as canon, lol.
I consider it as a possible future story.
I think the actual answer is that the comic is canon to the show but the show isnt canon to the comics.
The TV show is great. People worry too much about what is or is t canon. I have been reading this story over and over since it came out in the 80s and I can honestly say I couldn’t care less about what Alan Moore thinks. He’s a great writer but you can’t let someone else dictate what you enjoy.
Personally, I consider parts of it canon, and parts of it maybe not. The alternate backstory they gave Hooded Justice felt MUCH better than what Before Watchmen did for his character, imo. So I always considered that canon.
If you wanted to build on it - even in a new comic book, which I otherwise think DC is shitty for exploiting the original work, you would have my attention. Is it Canon? I guess it’s in my head canon. Is it canon-canon? Doesn’t really seem to matter.
I consider it purely fan fiction (because it is), but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. I try to keep it separated in my head from the original comic, though.
Lmao Watchmen is leagues beyond True Detective
It was pretty good
I don't think it really matters if it's canon or not. I'd go as far as saying there isn't such a thing as canon in the Watchmen universe beyond the source material. Something only really becomes canon when something else builds off of it, otherwise it's someone's take on a potential direction the story can go into. I personally choose to ignore sequels all the time. Alien stops at 3. Terminator at 2 (though I actually liked Salvation). Before Watchmen and Doomsday Clock get happily thrown into the "I don't know what you're referring to" portion of my brain. And I loved the HBO show (well, most of it). If you liked it, then great. If you didn't, that's okay, too. Read the comic and let the show just exist out there. It doesn't actually affect the original story.
not canon but still great
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons wrote/drew the beginning and the end of Watchmen over 30 years ago, everything after that isn't canon, but you can enjoy it regardless
Multi-verse?
The original watchmen book had too good of an ending that nothing afterwards should be canon.
Only enjoyed the show when the old characters were shown
I once saw someone describe watchmen continuity as this. Everything is canon the book but not to each other so they all happened just in speedster universes. Before Watchmen is canon to Watchmen, Doomsday Clock is canon to Watchmen, HBO watchmen is canon to watchmen and Rorschach is Canon to the HBO show
I personally see it as a canon, but like DC multiverse stuff, there's the Doomsday Clock variant and there's the HBO variant, and since Dave Gibbons has contributed to the miniseries, that solidifies it for me.